Thursday, December 12, 2013

Our Beit Midrash is presenting a Shiur Theatre installment this Shabbos; it's entitled "Frumming Out, Fitting In". The basic plot: The Sale of Yosef is moved up to 2013. Yosef interprets Mohammed Morsi's dreams, becomes the Chief Economic Advisor, and then is deported when Moris is deposed. Yosef comes home, after 13 years in Egypt, as a Breslover Chasid. Yaakov and Yosef then try to find a modus vivendi going forward...

In case anyone finds the topic interesting, here is the source sheet accompanying the drama:

As far as your local custom, that one who purchases
from bandits and thieves must return it to the owners and collect his expenditures
from them: If this is so, then all are obligated not to diverge from the
custom. As we say: "How do we know that custom is substantive? Deuteronomy
9:14 states, 'Do not trespass the boundary of another, set by early
generations.'" This is certainly true for a practice which inolves great
improvement and elimination of strife. Therefore, do according to your custom,
do not diverge, and be at peace.

Rav saw someone planting flax on Purim. Rav cursed him
for working on Purim, and his flax did not grow. But why did Rav do thus? Have
we not learned that they did not accept Purim as such a holiday [on which
planting would be prohibited]? Rav Kahana explained: This was a place where
their custom was not to work on Purim. Then why did Rav not excommunicate him?
The failure of his flax was his excommunication. And how do we know that custom
is substantive? Rava bar Abba cited Rabbi Yochanan citing Rav: Proverbs 1:8
says, "Listen, my son, to the ethical instruction of your father, and do
not reject the teachings of your mother."

Rabbi Ba and Rav Yehudah said, citing Rav: Were Elijah
the Prophet to come and declare that a shoe may be used for the chalitzah
rite, we would listen. Were he to say that we may not use a sandal, we would
not listen to him, for many customarily use the sandal, and custom overrides
law.

4.Emile Durkheim (20th century France), The Elementary Forms of the
Religious Life

If religion has given birth
to all that is essential in society, it is because the idea of society is the
soul of religion.

These authors maintained
that one of the primary functions of religion is the promotion of group
solidarity. They argued that collective
rituals enable the expression and reaffirmation of shared beliefs, norms, and
values, and are thus essential for maintaining communal stability and group
harmony.

6.Talmud, Pesachim 50b-51a

דברים המותרים
ואחרים נהגו בהן איסור – אי אתה רשאי להתירן בפניהם.

Regarding practices which
are permitted, but people customarily prohibit: You may not permit these in
front of them.

All division of custom in prayer
and mitzvah activities, and contradictory rulings issued regarding communal
matters performed in public in one synagogue, fall under the prohibition of
"You shall not split yourselves." One could almost call this a
mitzvah achieved through transgression! It is clear that this is not the
choicest form of the mitzvah; just the opposite, we are obligated to maintain
and make evident, in our every situation and service of the Gd of our
salvation, the unity of the nation of Israel and its Torah, via which Gd is
glorified among His people.

[This source deals with protocols for contracts, established by
local custom.] There may be cases in which a generic custom will not override
law, unless that law is uncertain. Clear law cannot be overridden by generic
custom, but only by custom stipulated by communal agreement.

How do we know that we are
obligated to blow shofar on this day? And regarding the essential text of the
Torah, how do we know that this is the Torah of Moshe, written from Gd's word?
It is from the mouth of the Jewish nation. Their mouths testify to it, and they
also testify that our deeds fulfill our ritual obligations, and that this has
been transmitted by tradition from the prophets, the law of Moshe at Sinai. The
words of the masses testify to every
mishnah and gemara, and beyond any proof is the [Talmudic] principle, "Go
see what the nation says." This [national practice] is the essence and
basis, and after that we look at the declarations of the mishnah and gemara in
such matters, and whatever emerges from them and we resolve is good. Anything
that does not match that which is in our hearts and which cannot be proved does
not uproot the essence.

Act Two: Accepting personal stringencies

10.Maimonides (12th
century Egypt), Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Deiot 4:2

לא יאכל אדם עד
שתתמלא כריסו אלא יפחות כמו רביע משבעתו

One should not eat to the point that his stomach is full;
he should lack about one-quarter of his satiation.

The great and superior fence
for this [special piety] is abandonment of food, for satiation brings on bad
thoughts. How should one practice this? If he has fish or meat or other
delicacies before him, he should not refrain from eating altogether, but out of
awe of Gd he should not fill his belly to the complete realization of his
desires.

12.Talmud, Berachot 17b

כיון דכולי עלמא
עבדי מלאכה ואיהו לא קא עביד - מיחזי כיוהרא

[Addressing a personal stringency
to avoid work on Tishah b'Av, in a place where the community normally does work:]
Since everyone does work, and he does not do work, this will appear like
self-righteous arrogance.

[Regarding the Code of Jewish
Law's condemnation of a Jew who sits in a succah in the rain:] This applies
specifically where there is a violation of law involved, as in the case of one
who is pained, thereby desecrating Yom Tov.

[Regarding rabbinic disapproval
of taking vows:] You might ask: Genesis 28 records, "And Yaakov vowed,"
and Yonah 2 states, "That which I have vowed, I will fulfill!" One
could say that in a time of need this is permitted…

"And you shall inform them"
– This refers to [Torah] their source of life. "The path" – This
refers to acts of kindness. "They will walk" – This is examining the
sick. "In it" – This is burial. "And the deed" – This is
justice. "They will perform" – This is to transcend the letter of the
law… As R’ Yochanan taught, that Jerusalem was destroyed only because they
judged the law of Torah therein. Should they have used the laws of force?!
Rather, they insisted on the law of Torah, and did not transcend the letter of
the law.

16.Talmud, Pesachim 40a

בעל נפש - אפילו
חיטין דשרירי לא ילתות.

A person of spiritual strength will not even soak
wheat, which is tough, on Passover.

If, however, we recognize
that Halakhah is multiplanar and many dimensional; that, properly conceived, it
includes much more than is explicitly required or permitted by specific rules,
we shall realize that the ethical moment we are seeking is itself an aspect of
Halakhah.

He told me, "I was a shepherd for my father in my
town, and I went to draw water from the spring, and I saw my reflection. My
nature became agitated and began to draw me from the world. I told myself:
Empty one! Why are you arrogant about a world that is not your own, when in the
end you will be decay and worms? By the Temple Service, I will shave you off
for the sake of Heaven!" I stood and kissed him on his head and said,
"May there be many more nazirites like you in Israel."

Rabban Gamliel recited Shema
on the night he was married. His students said to him, "Haven't you taught
us, our master, that a groom is exempt from reciting Shema on the first
night?" He replied, "I won't listen to you, to keep myself from
recognizing G-d as king even for a moment."

24.Lawrence Kohlberg (20th
century USA), Stages of Moral Development

III. Post-Conventional, Autonomous, or
Principled Level: The individual makes a clear effort to define moral values
and principles that have validity and application apart from the authority of
the groups of persons holding them and apart from the individual's own
identification with the group.

25.Proverbs 22:6, R’ Shimshon Raphael Hirsch translation

חנך לנער על פי דרכו גם כי יזקין לא יסור ממנה:

Raise the boy according
to the course his life will take when he is grown; then he will not depart from
it even in his old age.

All of the law which is
contained in the Shulchan Aruch is that which was given equally to all Israel,
with no one excluded. However, he who possesses only Torah does not even possess
Torah (see Yevamot 109b), for then his performance becomes trained habit, and that
which fathers pass on to sons (Yeshayah 38:19). Therefore, he who would act
piously with his Creator would be recognized by his deeds – that which his
heart originates for the sake of heaven, to vow as a nazirite in whatever
manner his heart desires. In this matter no two individuals have the same
style, because no two people love Gd in the same way.

Each garden has one central
variety, and small quantities of other varieties are planted around it. So,
too, each Jew is filled with the mitzvot of Gd, but each has one special
mitzvah in which he is extra careful, as is seen in Mechilta [Beshalach 251], “One
who performs a single mitzvah, faithfully, is worthy of Divine inspiration.”
And in the Jerusalem Talmud [Kiddushin 1:9], regarding the statement, ‘One who
performs a single mitzvah is given good things,’ they explain that this refers
to a person who designates a single mitzvah for himself, and never violates it.

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Rabbi Dr. Abraham
Twerski, in his Smiling Each Day, tells of a Jewish community composed
of many different religious sects, each one adhering to its own rabbi's
authority. At one point a dispute erupted, mushrooming to such an extent that an
outside sage was imported to resolve the strife.

This objective
authority interviewed the various sides and investigated the issue at length
before proposing a solution. When he finally presented an idea, though, one of
the interested rabbis rejected it. He tried an alternative proposal, but another
participant shot it down. A third approach was similarly demolished. Finally,
he threw up his hands in exasperation and declared, "Now I understand why
Avraham asked G-d regarding Sodom (Genesis 18:24), 'If there are fifty tzaddikim
[righteous people] in the city, won't you desist from destroying it?' Avraham's
logic was simple: If there are fifty tzaddikim in the city, they will
make sure to bring it to ruin themselves; there is no need for You to intervene!"

The lesson of the
story, to me, is that people pursuing righteous goals sometimes forget that they
have homes, families, and a world to maintain, and that shalom in that
home, family and world must be given greater priority than our other pursuits.

The Talmud (Shabbat
23b) seeks to educate this forgetful Jew, declaring, "It is obvious that a
Jew who must choose to spend on either the lights of Shabbat or the lights of Chanukah
should spend on the lights of Shabbat, for the sake of the peace they will
provide for the home." The core purpose of our Shabbat candles is to
illuminate our homes in a dignified way, so that people will be able to enjoy
Shabbat in peace, without tripping over obstacles and squabbling with each
other. This goal is deemed so important that it even overrides the imperative
to publicize Divine miracles through the lights of Chanukah.

This law is remarkable
in light of the fact that the minimum length of time required for the lights of
Chanukah to burn is just thirty minutes. We are talking about reducing the fuel
for one's Shabbat lamp by only thirty minutes – and even that brief length of
time is considered so important that it trumps the Chanukah lights. Judaism decrees
that it would be better to omit all thanks for the Divine miracle than to have
a home in pain for thirty minutes.

The home exists on
multiple levels; there is the literal house, the broader family, and the
still-broader community. On each level, we need to preserve our shalom bayit,
the peace of our home, lest people be pained. On each level we must remember
the Divine mandate: Without the lights of Shabbat, one might as well not have
the lights of Chanukah. First we build community and create shalom, and
then we are able to celebrate Chanukah and thank G-d for the miracles. May we
merit to have both parts, the shalom and the gratitude to G-d, in our
homes.

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

With great gratitude to HaShem, and with great thanks for all of my friends who helped look for the tefillin and advertise their disappearance, I am glad to report that the tefillin were returned this morning. It seems that someone mistook them for his own and took them home from shul the other day.

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

I never leave my tefillin in shul, unless they are in a locked locker, but I did it on Monday because I knew that I would be in a rush on Tuesday morning. Then, Tuesday morning - today - they weren't there. I searched, others searched. The shul put out an email. I offered a reward on Kijiji and Craigslist.

I jump ever time an email shows up in my inbox, but there is no news.

It's not just the tefillin. Really, to be honest, it's not the tefillin at all - it's the tefillin bag, which my grandmother a"h made for me - you can read about it, and see a picture, in my post here.

Everyone leaves their tefillin in that shul (Clanton Park Synagogue). I saw someone else's tefillin on the same shelf this morning, while looking for my own.

Of course, people said, it could be that someone took yours by accident. And that could be - but it's very unlikely, given that my bag is very distinctive, and that my bag has my contact information in it and I've heard nothing.

Searching the Internet turns up stories about tefillin ending up in pawn shops. Should I scout out Toronto's pawn shops? I've thought about it.

I had to give a shiur today, which I did. I skipped a chuppah, but did go to a shul dinner (different shul) for a time, but had no taste for it.

I'm supposed to be working on a few shiurim and speeches tonight, and a new shiur theatre, but I have no taste for that either. I answered a few old emails.

I'm not used to being at such loose ends, but tonight I'm feeling a lot of guilt for leaving the tefillin there, and mourning for losing this connection with my grandmother.

You know how people say, "If I could just take back X"? That's me right now.

For a while today I was sure this was just a dream, and I was going to wake up, but no luck.